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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-04 Daily Xml
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Motions

Muecke, Dr J.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (11:30): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises the 2020 Australian of the Year, South Australian Dr James Muecke AM;

(b) highlights Dr Muecke's outstanding contribution to the medical profession worldwide in the area of eye health and the prevention of blindness; and

(c) acknowledges the significant impact Dr Muecke has had on the fight to prevent blindness, not least through his role as co-founder of Sight For All, a research, education and infrastructure organisation providing low-cost programs to target the causes of blindness.

It is a pleasure to rise today to congratulate Dr James Muecke AM on being bestowed such a prestigious national award. He joins other outstanding South Australians who have been honoured with the award, including Dr Richard Harris OAM, an anaesthetist and cave diver who assisted with the Thai cave rescue in 2018. Dr Muecke joins an honour roll filled with high calibre Australians, such as Cathy Freeman, Pat Rafter, Rosie Batty and Fred Hollows.

The nominees for the 2020 South Australian of the Year awards included Michael O'Connell AM, an advocate for victims of crime and terrorism; Gabrielle Kelly, a wellbeing advocate, digital pioneer and filmmaker; and Dr Sandra Marshall, a known literacy advocate. All are outstanding in their fields and I am proud to call them fellow South Australians. This year, Dr Muecke was honoured for his outstanding achievements in the area of eye health and the prevention of blindness by the National Australia Day Council board from a group of 32 state and territory nominees. I congratulate all those who were nominated to begin with.

For those who are not entirely familiar with Dr James Muecke's career, he is an ophthalmologist who began his career in Kenya. He then relocated to South Australia and became an eye surgeon and blindness prevention pioneer. Dr Muecke is a man who cares. He saw the opportunities his skill set could give to less fortunate people with no access to the health care they needed. Doctors like him could offer something unique to improve the sight of tens of thousands of people.

Having witnessed and recognised this gap in the provision of eye health services in our neighbouring developing countries, Dr Muecke went on to co-found Sight For All with Dr Henry Newland and Dr Bob Casson. A social impact organisation, Sight For All has the quite perfect vision, I guess you could say, to create a world where everyone can see. Sight For All raises funds to deliver eye healthcare projects free of charge to our partner countries and communities.

By working with their foreign colleagues, the three doctors at Sight For All identified the areas of greatest need and developed a sustainable sight-saving model, which became the basis for the organisation. It delivered this model in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. The organisation also undertakes collaborative research to improve the treatment and prevention of blinding diseases, provides infrastructure support for the delivery of eye health services in these regions and runs sustainable education and eye health awareness programs.

Dr Muecke is not a stranger to being recognised for the work he has done, which has changed the lives of thousands of people. In the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours, Dr Muecke was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia. He received the University of Adelaide's Vice-Chancellor's Alumni Award in 2019.

This is a particularly special year for Dr Muecke to receive yet another award, as 2020 marks the 60th anniversary of the Australian of the Year awards. It has been bestowed as part of celebrations surrounding Australia Day since 1960 in recognition of outstanding achievement, with fellow Australians proudly viewing those with the title as embodying all that it means to be Australian. The award represents one of the many ways in which national identity is expressed, and often encourages a public dialogue about national identity, about Australia's past, present and future and the values of a civil society.

In closing, I say congratulations and a heartfelt thank you to Dr Muecke for his vision for a better world, his commitment, and his contribution.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (11:35): I rise to support this motion, an excellent motion that brings to the house information relevant to congratulating Dr James Muecke AM, now the 2020 Australian of the Year. I have known Dr Muecke for some time. He and his family reside in my electorate, and I must say there was enormous sense of pride when the announcement was made that we had the honour, if you like, of having the Australian of the Year for two years in a row coming from South Australia.

I cannot think of a more worthy recipient of this incredible honour than Dr James Muecke. He has been working for an extended period of time trying to prevent curable blindness not only here in Australia but right throughout the world. This is a story that I think young people, and in fact all Australians, should find extraordinarily motivating.

He studied ophthalmology here in South Australia, graduated and worked in our hospital system, but almost from day one he thought there was a further contribution that could be made beyond his service as an ophthalmic surgeon here at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. He saw there was extraordinary curable or preventable blindness that existed in Central Australia among some of our Aboriginal communities, throughout Asia and further afield.

We know that from time to time many surgeons have travelled overseas into areas that are suffering from preventable or curable blindness. They dedicate and donate their services to communities that do not have that level of surgical capability in their own countries, and this is a very commendable activity. However, Dr Muecke and his supporters at the Royal Adelaide Hospital said that there must be a better way, that rather than sending our surgeons on short visits overseas,'Why don't we flip that around? Why don't we bring doctors from these countries down to the Royal Adelaide Hospital, have them work here, train them up and then send them back with adequate resources to create clinics and hospitals and treat patients back in their own countries?' That is exactly and precisely what has occurred.

It started with the Vision Myanmar project and that has now evolved into Sight For All. My understanding is that this program is now touching more than a million people per year, which is extraordinary. It is a story every single South Australian should know. Every single South Australian should know that this project, which is having such a global impact, emanated from the Royal Adelaide Hospital and important ophthalmic surgeons in South Australia, and that Dr Muecke was one of the co-founders.

He was awarded an AM in the Order of Australia back in 2012, a very worthy recipient. I know his wife, Mena Muecke, also received an award under the Order of Australia for her services, also supporting the work of Sight For All. I know Dr Muecke would be the first to say that, whilst he has been recognised, an extraordinary number of South Australians have contributed to the success of this project: medical specialists in South Australia, great philanthropic support and corporate support has put together the fundraisers to, if you like, purchase the equipment and lease or build clinics or hospitals in these countries.

In many ways, it has been an effort of the entire state and a contribution we can make as a state to help rid the world of curable or preventable blindness. My heartfelt congratulations and thanks to Dr Muecke for his service. We know that this year will be an extraordinarily busy year for him. We know that he is already booked up, as Dr Richard Harris was last year, speaking to school groups and community groups, and telling their inspirational stories to the next generation.

That is precisely what will happen to Dr Muecke over the next 12 months. He will be spreading a story, which I think will inspire the next generation—not just people interested in the area of preventable blindness but people who want to make a contribution more broadly beyond their area of profession. I thank the member for Elder for bringing this motion to the house; I think it is a very important one. We should recognise the contributions that are made, and I am very happy to support this motion.

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (11:40): I rise on behalf of the opposition to also support this very important motion thanking Dr Muecke for his important work and congratulating him on this esteemed award as Australian of the Year. It is a delight to have two South Australian doctors in a row as the recipients of the Australian of the Year. Of course, Richard Harris was last year's recipient.

These awards have gone to people who have contributed not just to the lives of people across Australia but to people across the world. When we look at the work of Dr Muecke and his contributions through Sight For All, we see somebody who has devoted himself to making sure that the rights, services and treatment that we expect and in many regards take for granted in Australia are available to people to people in other countries, no matter the status of their income or level of services in place.

Eyesight is obviously so important yet is something that we take for granted. To lose your eyesight and become blind has such a big impact upon your life. To be able to provide treatments and preventative and restorative services in many countries around the world that do not necessarily have those services can be truly transformative. In many countries, they do not have the services available that we provide in Australia, through the Royal Society for the Blind and others, for people who have lost their vision. Many countries have far fewer services, and if you become blind that is very detrimental to the rest of your life and how you can participate, particularly in those countries.

As has been mentioned, Dr Muecke co-founded the Vision Myanmar program in 2000 and then founded Sight For All in 2007. Sight For All is a not-for-profit organisation that deploys more than 120 eye specialists across 10 countries, predominantly focused in Asia, to combat preventable blindness. The organisation also conducts vitally important work with Aboriginal communities in Australia.

Sadly, we know that the gap between Aboriginal communities and non-Aboriginal communities in terms of health services is wide, and that is completely unacceptable. Ophthalmology services and services to prevent blindness are certainly areas in which there is a lot more to do. As such, I congratulate Dr Muecke for that work as well. Sight For All's mission is to:

…[empower] communities to deliver comprehensive, evidence-based, high quality eye health care through the provision of research, education and equipment.

While this award recognises Dr Muecke's work in eye care, he has also set a broader agenda in terms of what he wants to focus on as Australian of the Year. As the Premier said, there will no doubt be a busy agenda for him, with speaking engagements and various meetings, and also many functions and school groups that he will be focusing on.

As I mentioned, Dr Muecke also has a broader agenda to look at other critically important health issues that are front of mind, including tackling type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is a massive issue across this country and yet, in a large part, is preventable. Taking additional preventative health actions could have a big impact. Dr Muecke, in his role as an ophthalmologist, was seeing patients losing vision as a result of type 2 diabetes and became increasingly frustrated that he was at the stage of the patient's journey when it was often too late to save their sight.

His focus was increasingly drawn towards tackling the root cause of his patients' vision loss, an entirely preventable disease. In 2017-18, one million Australians had type 2 diabetes. It is the leading cause of blindness for working-age Australians and the sixth biggest killer in our country. Dr Muecke wants to challenge Australia's relationship with sugar, a hugely important cause that we know has a significant impact upon our health system. He has been using his platform to call on governments to consider their responsibilities to reduce the consumption of sugar through their policy agenda.

I know that the Leader of the Opposition has already met with Dr Muecke. I am hoping to meet with him soon as well to discuss his policy recommendations to address this massive issue. I hope that the government is doing the same because we should be taking the opportunity of his leadership in this role this year to challenge our thinking and our policy solutions and make sure that ultimately we can prevent people getting type 2 diabetes and losing their sight.

A man of many talents, Dr Muecke notably has also authored a book, called Adelaide for Kids, with ideas to keep kids entertained. I am sure we would all agree that is very important, particularly when you have young kids. Sadly, Dr Muecke has now revealed publicly that an inherited neurological disability means that he will need to cease performing surgery. Of course, Dr Muecke's important advocacy work will no doubt continue to contribute to what will be a significant legacy and invaluable contribution to our community and globally.

On behalf of the opposition, we congratulate Dr Muecke and thank him for his work here in Australia, particularly at the Royal Adelaide Hospital helping so many people in our state, including Aboriginal communities as well. We know that ophthalmology services is one area of our health system that is under pressure and under constant stress and has long wait times, but we know that his work does not limit itself to our state borders. It has had a huge impact on many thousands of people around the world, and we could not be more delighted that he has been recognised with this very important honour.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (11:47): It is with considerable pleasure and pride that I stand to support this motion and thank the member for bringing this to the attention of the house. I hope all members in the chamber watched the ceremony when Dr James Muecke was recognised as the Australian of the Year this year. I hope we are all flush with pride as he is the second South Australian in two years to achieve this high honour.

He and his wife, Mena, as the Premier has pointed out, have both been recognised with Australian orders for their work, in particular in the development of the Sight For All program. I suppose as South Australians, on the one hand, and as Australians, we recognise how important this occasion was for the advancement and advocacy of eyesight, particularly in the adult population, which was the specific cause for bringing the spotlight onto diabetes in relation to the consequences and loss of sight. We feel enormous pride, and we congratulate Dr James Muecke on this honour.

I also recognise the work of the Hon. David Tonkin, also an ophthalmologist, who has been a premier of this state. I do so not in any way to diminish the contemporary work now that has been continued by Dr James Muecke but to acknowledge that in our own communities, we have had exceptional areas of leadership in advancements in relief for those who have the plight of blindness or are sight impaired. One of those is Dr David Tonkin, himself a trained ophthalmologist. In fact, he continued his practice in this area while he was in the parliament, including when he was premier. He continued a Saturday morning practice to continue to support his existing clients.

I bring to the parliament's attention that in 1990 the Lions Club in South Australia established a SightFirst program, which emanated from the Burnside division of the Lions Club in particular. It has now had the benefit of assisting 27 million people in prevention and training around the world. There have been 80.5 million treatments administered through this program. It has close to 1,000 programs across 90 countries in the world.

Very importantly, it has been a program that has supported the training of over 305,000 nurses, ophthalmologists and other eye care workers around the world. This is all because people who cared about this issue gathered together, developed it here in South Australia and it is now a program that is around the world. That is what happens when you combine a problem that has to be solved, people who are committed to the cause and an endurance quality to ensure that that is maintained, and that is exactly what Dr James Muecke and Mrs Mena Muecke have undertaken with their colleagues in the development of this program.

I also applaud Dr Muecke's determination to use his time wisely in those speaking engagements to ensure that he spreads the message that we need to do everything we can to improve the nutrition and increase the physical activity of our population. This is a very important public health policy that he is committed to.

Dr Muecke has already established his war on sugar and highlighted that we need to consider—and this will be a matter that will come to all of us in state and federal parliaments—whether we have a sugar tax, whether it should apply to products where there has been an excess amount of sugar, whether there are further requirements that we should be looking at for food labelling and whether there are restrictions on advertising, particularly to children during children's television viewing and the like. He maintains that sugar is as toxic and addictive as nicotine. Clearly, with these messages, he is intent on making sure that he makes a difference in his year of this recognition.

I also wish to identify a number of other areas that need to be improved. There is a program called the Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service, which provides free telephone coaching to any South Australian adult to assist them to make healthy behaviour changes and to assist with physical activity, weight management and the like.

There is also the SA Healthy Towns Challenge, which has committed $1 million over four years to fund community projects in regional towns. Across the first two rounds of grants, 12 towns have been provided with funds. All projects are addressing nutrition by physical activity. Again, a big tick to Wellbeing SA, which of course is the newly established agency established under the stewardship of the Hon. Stephen Wade, Minister for Health and Wellbeing. It is a considerable compliment to him in advancing a rebalancing of our health system to understand that this preventative role not only is it important but it needs to be active, it needs to be funded and it needs to be effective.

I am sure that, with Wellbeing SA's work, together with the support of Dr James Muecke and his valuable advice and experience to promote the social media campaigns that are necessary to look at preventing diabetes through good nutrition and the importance of screening for diabetes, these will all be important initiatives. They will have the spotlight shone on them during this year—and it is not before time. It will advance the work that is absolutely necessary to ensure that we can bring people through healthy lives and that, if they do fall victim to a diabetes diagnosis, we are able to assess that, and with early screenings and the like ensure that eye health is maintained as best it can be, and hopefully we can combat the preventative lapse into blindness or severe eyesight impediment.

Congratulations to Dr James Muecke. We look forward to hearing from you, seeing you, supporting you and recognising the extraordinary contribution you have already made, particularly as a result of your professional achievements and diverse involvement around the world and, indeed, to see your richly deserved applause from others.

Mrs POWER (Elder) (11:55): I thank all those members who have contributed to this motion. Once again, on behalf of the South Australian government and this place, I congratulate Dr James Muecke on his award. It is well deserved.

Motion carried.

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